Learn about developing a content marketing strategy for your small business by using low-cost and free tools around the web! This presentation focuses on digital inbound marketing for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and others who are unsure of how to market their company on the Internet.

3. OUTBOUND MARKETING
Outbound marketing “the old way”:
• TV, print, and radio ads
• Cold calling
• Billboards
Disadvantages:
• Tends to be more costly
• Market is more diverse now
• People don’t want to be told what to buy
Advantages:
• Fast to implement
• Relatively easy to track & measure ROI

4. INBOUND MARKETING
Offering content to users they want.
• Social media
• Website
• Blogs
• Videos, pictures, multimedia & more
Advantages:
• Generally cost-effective
• Offering users value over a selling proposition
• Encourages engagement
• Disadvantages:
• Generally takes more time to see results
• Can be time-consuming

5. DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Research your target audience – what products do they use? How do they find
new businesses? What services do they?
Identify problems in your industry – what are the failures? Where are the
gaps? How can your business fill in the gaps? What sets you apart?
Create a budget – how much money do you have each month to devote to
marketing? Is your budget going to grow? You may need to revise your
budget over time, but you can start as low as $100/month
Get the scoop on your competitors – what are others in the business doing?
What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong?
Decide how your target audience finds new business and direct your
marketing dollars and energy towards that.

6. EXAMPLE OF GEARING YOUR MARKETING
STRATEGY TOWARDS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
The business: retail store geared for teenage girls.
Your market is obsessed with social media – get your clothes on Facebook, twitter,
Instagram, and Pinterest. Suggest outfits. Recommend accessories. Give them
looks to emulate. Encourage them to Like or Follow You to get the latest news &
deals.
Their parents are most likely paying for their clothes – get parents’ email addresses
and home address. Send them coupons once per month via email and once per
month via regular mail.
They wear what their friends wear – create a referral program. If your customer refers
a new customer, they get a free bracelet.
Make products they actually want to wear – fashion trends change rapidly, so make
sure you sell clothes teenage girls actually want to buy. For example, Abercrombie &
Fitch is struggling because teens no longer want to wear store logos on their t-shirts.
The market shifted, and teenagers look for a more unique style.

7. CREATING A BUDGET & A PLAN
Factors to consider when creating a budget:
• What are your marketing goals? Consider whether you are trying to grow
your business, bring in new customers, bring back old customers, or focus on
customer retention. Or perhaps, you want to focus on B2B marketing and
referrals.
• How much extra revenue do you have to devote to marketing?
• How much time do you have each week to devote to marketing? If your
time is limited, you may consider outsourcing some of the tasks or hiring
additional help. For example, if you might consider getting a marketing intern
to help with certain projects. Or you might use a social media company to
handle your social media posting. Consider spending at least eight hours per
week on your marketing efforts. Plan your time effectively.

8. WHY IS MARKETING IMPORTANT?

9. SMALL BUSINESS CLIMATE IS TOUGH
• 667,000 new businesses started each year
• 25,000 new products introduced annually
• 4,000 promotional messages assault each person daily
• Competition becoming fierce
• Marketing array is staggering

10. YOUR INBOUND DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
• STEP ONE: WEBSITE
• STEP TWO: SOCIAL MEDIA
• STEP THREE: ONLINE BUSINESS LISTINGS
• STEP FOUR: EMAIL CAMPAIGN
• STEP FIVE: TRACKING
• STEP SIX: MAINTAINING

11. STEP ONE: YOUR WEBSITE
Contents
1. Registering, and hosting a website
2. Design
3. Content
4. Adding content
5. SEO

12. 1. REGISTER & HOST A SITE FOR $160 OR LESS
Register your domain with GoDaddy: $12/year
• Choose a domain that represents your business & is easy to remember
Sign up for hosting through BlueHost: $142/3 years of hosting
• My favorite host because they are inexpensive & reliable & very helpful

13. 2. DESIGNING & BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE
Download Weebly or Wordpress:
Both are free platforms for website building
• Weebly – drag & drop
• Wordpress – somewhat intuitive, there are themes & templates for you to use
• Use images but not too mant
• Make your site clean & easy to navigate
You might want to hire a professional for your website, unless you have some
experience. Your site is your online storefront. It’s your presentation to the rest of
the world of what you’re all about.

14. 3. PUTTING CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE
Have at least five pages:
• Home
• About Us
• Services
• Products
• Contact & location
TIPS:
• Prominently display your phone number, address, & hours of operation
• Make your writing clean & concise. Put all relevant information towards the top of
the page
• Always include a call to action in your writing
• Consider adding multimedia features, such as videos
• Make it as easy as possible for people to get the information they need. People
don’t read. They skim.

15. 4. THE BASICS OF SEO
What is SEO?
• Search engine optimization
• It’s how search engines find & rank your site
How you can do your own SEO for cheap:
• Research the right keywords your
customers are using to find you
• Insert the appropriate keywords into your
text
• Build internal links
• Build external links using business listings
(next slide)
• Include meta descriptions, meta titles, and
ALT tags for your photos

16. EXAMPLE OF USING KEYWORDS
The business: a divorce law firm in New York City
Keyword research – what words and phrases do people type into search engines
to find divorce law firms in New York City? Examples may include “NYC
divorce lawyer,” “New York family law attorney,” and “divorce lawyer in New
York City”
Keyword + GEO = make your content focused on the geographical areas you
serve. The attorney does not want clients from California, so target the content
for New York.
Inserting keywords naturally into content – use about 1 keyword per every 200
words. Try to be as natural sounding as possible. “The law firm of Jones &
Jones houses a team of divorce attorneys who serve clients in and around New
York City. To contact a divorce attorney in NYC today, give our firm a call.”
Use synonyms – think about the different words people use to describe your
products or services. “Lawyer,” “attorney,” “law firm,” “legal counsel.” Use a
mix of singular & plural.

17. STEP TWO: SOCIAL MEDIA
CONTENTS
1. Best social networks
2. Building followers
3. Blogging

18. 1. BEST SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
• Facebook – everyone uses it. You
need it.
• Twitter – easy to use and update.
• Pinterest – very search engine
friendly, help boosts your online
presence
• YouTube – world’s second largest
search engine.
• Instagram – directed towards visual
marketing.
• LinkedIn – great for B2B marketing
• Google+ - not a huge social following,
but great for SEO. Google loves
Google.

19. EXAMPLES OF USING THE SAME CONTENT ACROSS
MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
Example: an infographic. Make an infogram (use Pikochart.com or Infogram) to explain a certain
concept of your industry.
Write a blog about it – develop written content about the infographic & include the image in the body of the
blog
Post it – post the same infographic on Facebook, Twitter, Instgram, Google+, and Pinterest
Include it on a page on your website – if one of your content pages relates to the content on the infographic,
include the infographic on that page
Turn it into a SlideShare presentation – break up the content of the infographic into a presentation, and
upload it on SlideShare
Turn it into a YouTube video – same concept. Break up the content of the infographic and make a YouTube
video out of it.
Send it to bloggers/journalists – pitch the information included on the infographic to journalists & bloggers
and see if they want to include it on their site, and then link back to your website.
Send it out in your newsletter – put your infographic in your biweekly newsletter to send the information to
everyone on your list.
Print it – put the infographic on a postcard & send it to your customers. Or print it on nice cardstock and keep
copies at your store.

20. 2. BUILDING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING
• invite all your friends & family
• Include your social networks in your email signature
• Include links to your social networks on your website
• Put a couple important social networks on your business card
• Offer an incentive – e.g. “Like Us on Facebook and receive a free
workout class!”
• Post regularly and offer interesting content

21. 3. BLOGGING
CONTENTS
1. Why do I need a blog?
2. What do I write about?
3. How often do I update?

22. BENEFITS OF BLOGGING

25. 2. WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT?
Answer questions – does your customer base have common questions?
Answer them in the form of a blog post.
Offer information – retail store? Suggest outfits based on what’s in stock. A
restaurant? Suggest various food & wine pairings.
Company news – share what’s new. New products, new staff, new location, new
services – tell us what’s new.
News about your industry – are there big developments? Interesting news?
Things your customers need to know?
Stories about your customers/staff – don’t be afraid to get a little personal. If a
customer had a good experience in your store, let the world know (with their
permission, of course)

26. 3. HOW OFTEN SHOULD I BLOG?
The more the better.
Daily updates are best, but take a lot of discipline, aim to update your blog
as least twice per month
Outsource your blogging if you’re unsure of how to do it
• You want both relevant content + optimized posts.
• To get the most out of blogging, you’ll need to put in the right
keywords, links, pictures, meta information, and alt tags
• You’ll also need to syndicate your content across all your social media
platforms

27. STEP THREE: ONLINE BUSINESS LISTINGS
Getting your business listed on directories and listing sites is essential
CONTENTS:
1. Business listings everyone needs
2. Listings targeted for your industry

28. 1. BUSINESS LISTINGS EVERYONE NEEDS
• Google +
• Bing
• Yahoo
• Foursquare
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• Use a service like Yahoo Listings or Yext to manage all your business
listings from one place. There is a small monthly cost but you won’t
have to worry about setting up and tracking 50 different profiles. I use
Yext.

29. 2. LISTINGS SPECIFIC TO YOUR INDUSTRY
There are countless directories that are directed to specific industries.
Research the best ones and submit your site.
EXAMPLES
• Attorneys: Avvo, Martindale, Nolo
• Home services: Thumbtack, Angie’s List
• Consultants: Professional networking sites
Consider local listings such as the Chamber of Commerce, Patch.com, and
more.

30. STEP FOUR: EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
CONTENTS:
1. Building a List
2. Selecting an email service
3. Developing content

31. 1. BUILD YOUR LIST
Keep a database in an Excel document of all your business, customer,
client, and personal contacts – keep first and last name, email address,
phone number, and physical mailing address.
• Ask for name & mailing address when customers check out
• Ask for name & email when clients make appointments
• Offer free downloads on your site. Ask for an email address to
download.
• Allow users to sign up for your newsletter/email list on your website
• Allow users to sign up for your newsletter/email list on your social
networks

32. 2. CHOOSING AN EMAIL SERVICE
MailChimp and Constant Contact are the most popular
• You can use various templates to make your newsletters look good
• You can upload spreadsheets of your customer contact information
• You can schedule out multiple emails to go out at different times
Send out an email campaign or newsletter biweekly or once a month.
Sending too often will annoy people and have them unsubscribe.
Sending too infrequently serves no purpose and is a waste of time.

33. 3. DEVELOPING CONTENT FOR YOUR EMAIL CAMPAIGN
What to include:
• Deals – everyone email should have some sort of offer. 20% off, free trial, buy one get one. Include a deal
with an expiration date so people are inclined to act right away
• Information – give people content they want. Include links to your latest blogs, web pages, articles, and
more.
• Multimedia – don’t be afraid to include pictures, videos, infographics, downloads, e-books, and more
• Company news – do you have a new service coming soon? Tell your readers to look out for the latest
offerings from your company.
Content tips:
• Make it comprehensive, but concise.
• Not too long.
• Easy to read, especially on mobile devices
• Don’t use it as a bragging platform or a huge self-promotion. You will turn people off.
• Make it interesting and enticing enough so people won’t unsubscribe
• Re-use content that’s already on your website

34. STEP FIVE: TRACKING: WHAT’S YOUR ROI?
Tracking allows you to figure out what’s going right and what’s going wrong.
• Google Analytics for your website – install Google Analytics on your site. It’s
free and offers insanely valuable information, such as
• Insights for your social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, and others offer free
insights about your new likers, followers, engagement, and more.
• Insights for your business listings – using a service like Yahoo Listing or Yext
let’s you track the number of website clicks
• Tracking for your email campaigns – email services lets you know who opened
your email, who clicked, and who unsubscribed.
• Ask your new customers how they found you! Keep track.
• Create and update a monthly chart of where your marketing efforts are most
and least effective – download a free template online

35. STEP SIX: MAINTAINING YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Marketing is an ongoing effort. You cannot set up a website and never
update it. You cannot establish social media accounts and never post.
You will see not see results.
CONTENTS:
1. Maintaining your website
2. Maintaining your social media
3. Maintaining your business listings
4. Maintaining your newsletter

36. 1. MAINTAINING YOUR WEBSITE
• Never have outdated information – do not have the wrong phone number, address,
outdated menu items, old pricing, etc. Make all relevant consumer information accurate
and up to date.
• Add blogs frequently – keep your content fresh and relevant.
• Change design periodically – keep up with current design trends.
• Keep promoting – never stop sending leads to your site.
Tips:
• Write 5 blogs at once and schedule them to post on different days/times. Have them
automatically post on your social media networks. There are different Wordpress plugins
to help with automation.
• You might consider hiring a pro to maintain your site. You can find a writer to make
regular updates.
• Put your website address on your business card and email signature.

37. 2. MAINTAINING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
• Schedule posts in advance
• Consider automation services, such as HootSuite, to track and ink your
social networks
• Post updates, contests, giveaways, promotions, blogs, and more.
• Be funny and relevant
• Ask questions and encourage engagement
• Post “link bait” – stuff people will share
• Hop on trends and comment on big news stories

38. 3. MAINTAINING YOUR BUSINESS LISTINGS
• Add deals
• Make sure all information listed is correct
• Update menus/services/products/offerings

39. 4. MAINTAINING YOUR NEWSLETTER
• Send out biweekly or monthly
• Refresh the content
• Add new deals
• Add new images/videos

40. THANK YOU!
Questions? Visit www.scribe-space.com